Various flexible sheet materials are marketed in the form of strips rolled up usually on a paper tube. In facilitate the separation of pieces from the roll, the manufacturers, as a rule, divide the sheet into unit pieces by providing lines of weakness, e.g. perforations, at regular intervals. Toliet papers and paper kitchen towels are the most common examples of such flexible sheet products. In the following text, the term xe2x80x9crollxe2x80x9d will be used to denote any kind of flexible sheet material marketed in rolls.
People often find it annoying that separating a piece from the roll requires both hand: one to pull the material off the roll, and the other to prevent the roll from overspinning on its spindle when the pull is increased in order to separate the piece. It may happen that one hand of the user is dirty or wet, and therefore the material still on the roll become unsanitary or weakened by moisture. It may also happen that one hand of the user is disabled or occupied with holding some object.
Many devices have already been patented that enable a person to separate a piece with one hand from the roll. With most of them, unrolling is done by pulling the material off the roll in one direction, and separating is done by changing the direction of the pull or by exerting a sudden tug on the free end of the roll. The majority of these devices use techniques belonging in one of the following three groups: (1) Preventing the overspinning the roll is achieved by braking the turning of the roll at its periphery; (2) Preventing the overspinning of the roll is achieved by braking the turning of the roll at its core; (3) Preventing the overspinning of the roll is achieved by braking the movement of an already unrolled piece of material.
U.S. Pat. No. 452,719, U.S. Pat. No. 3,494,518, U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,474, U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,364, U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,350, U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,675, U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,487, FR. Patent No. 1,440,814, and DR. Patent No. 1,294,626 are examples of devices belonging in the first group; U.S. Pat. No. 1,243,569, U.S. Pat. No. 2,488,492, U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,274, U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,755, U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,227, U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,357, U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,843, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,882, U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,142, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,561 are examples of those in the second group; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,651,434, U.S. Pat. No. 1,837,507, U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,974, U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,974, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,675 are examples of those in the third group.
Several difficulties have been encountered, however, with the patented devices. Among them: preventing the roll from overspinning may not be satisfactorily achieved at all possible weight and size of the roll, or the length of the piece to be separated may be limited to one unit piece, or the installation of the roll in the device may be time-consuming, or the device may be costly for mass manufacture. A further factor that may discourage people from using most of the patented devices is that they already have simple, conventional devices for the intended purpose, and the advantages offered by the newer devices do not seem to justify buying a new dispenser.
The device to be described here is simple, reliable, inexpensive, and allows a person to separate from the roll any length of the material measured in multiples of the unit piece. Its main advantage is, however, that with a simple modificationxe2x80x94that can be done by any person who knows how to use a drillxe2x80x94it can be added to a roll-dispenser already owned. The device belongs in the second group; i.e., preventing the overspinning of the roll is done by braking the turn of the roll at its core.
The roll dispenser to be described here enables a person to separate with one hand a piece from a roll of a flexible sheet material, typically toilet paper or paper kitchen-towel. The novel parts of the device consist of a rotor, to which the conventional spindle of the holding base and the roll are firmly attached, and an L-shaped braking arm, which has a limited freedom of bending up or down around a small peg installed in the holding base. Since the free end of the roll is slid through a slit in leg of the L, directing the pull on the free end of the roll up or down the arm can be slightly lifted or lowered. When bent upward, a smooth section of an opening in the outer leg of the arm will be brought in contact with the rotor, and thereby the spindle/rotor/roll assembly is allowed to turn unimpeded. When bent downward, another section of the opening in the arm will be brought in contact with the rotor and cause the assembly to stop turning. By increasing the pull on the free end of the roll, a piece of the roll outside the slit can be torn off.